This section provides background information related to the present disclosure and is not necessarily prior art.
In 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated rulemaking that proposed to create a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS), FMVSS No. 150, that requires vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication capability for light vehicles. In preparation for FMVSS No. 150, minimum performance requirements for V2V/V2I devices and messages were created. One desired outcome of FMVSS No. 150 is that by mandating performance requirement in all new vehicles, the development of a wide variety of vehicle applications would be advanced, including such applications as crash-imminent collision avoidance, wireless control of vehicle platoons, and control and sensor sharing among autonomous vehicles.
One proposed performance requirement of FMVSS No. 150 is the requirement of new light vehicles to be equipped with at least one dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) device, which operates on short-range wireless communication channels designed for automotive use. V2V communication would take place on a radio signal at 5.9 GHz, with the DSRC devices of the vehicles transmitting and receiving radio signals in a 75 MHz band around 5.9 GHz.
Such a system of never-before deployed 5.9 GHz V2V links between vehicles has no precedent in automotive history. Further, 5.9 GHz DSRC radio coverage around a vehicle is often non-circular, with holes in the coverage that allow degradation in the V2V link range in certain directions and ultimately impact the delivery of crash warnings and driver alerts, control of vehicle platoons, and the reliability of sensor sharing among autonomous vehicles. Thus, there is an important need to design and validate 5.9 GHz DSRC on-vehicle systems, optimize on-vehicle coverage, and provide methods of measurement.